Average Weather at Robert Chris McIntosh Airport Arkansas, United States

At Robert Chris McIntosh Airport, the summers are hot and muggy; the winters are short, very cold, and wet; and it is partly cloudy year round. Over the course of the year, the temperature typically varies from 32°F to 93°F and is rarely below 19°F or above 101°F.

Based on the tourism score, the best times of year to visit Robert Chris McIntosh Airport for warm-weather activities are from late April to early June and from late August to mid October.

Temperature

The hot season lasts for 3.7 months, from May 29 to September 20, with an average daily high temperature above 85°F. The hottest day of the year is July 22, with an average high of 93°F and low of 73°F.

The cool season lasts for 2.9 months, from November 27 to February 24, with an average daily high temperature below 59°F. The coldest day of the year is January 7, with an average low of 32°F and high of 50°F.

The daily average high (red line) and low (blue line) temperature, with 25th to 75th and 10th to 90th percentile bands. The thin dotted lines are the corresponding average perceived temperatures.

The figure below shows you a compact characterization of the entire year of hourly average temperatures. The horizontal axis is the day of the year, the vertical axis is the hour of the day, and the color is the average temperature for that hour and day.

Clouds

At Robert Chris McIntosh Airport, the average percentage of the sky covered by clouds experiences mild seasonal variation over the course of the year.

The clearer part of the year at Robert Chris McIntosh Airport begins around June 13 and lasts for 4.9 months, ending around November 8. On October 5, the clearest day of the year, the sky is clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy71% of the time, and overcast or mostly cloudy29% of the time.

The cloudier part of the year begins around November 8 and lasts for 7.1 months, ending around June 13. On March 1, the cloudiest day of the year, the sky is overcast or mostly cloudy49% of the time, and clear, mostly clear, or partly cloudy51% of the time.

Precipitation

A wet day is one with at least 0.04 inches of liquid or liquid-equivalent precipitation. The chance of wet days at Robert Chris McIntosh Airport varies throughout the year.

The wetter season lasts 4.7 months, from March 14 to August 5, with a greater than 31% chance of a given day being a wet day. The chance of a wet day peaks at 40% on May 15.

The drier season lasts 7.3 months, from August 5 to March 14. The smallest chance of a wet day is 23% on January 24.

Among wet days, we distinguish between those that experience rain alone, snow alone, or a mixture of the two. Based on this categorization, the most common form of precipitation throughout the year is rain alone, with a peak probability of 40% on May 15.

The percentage of days in which various types of precipitation are observed, excluding trace quantities: rain alone, snow alone, and mixed (both rain and snow fell in the same day).

Rainfall

To show variation within the months and not just the monthly totals, we show the rainfall accumulated over a sliding 31-day period centered around each day of the year. Robert Chris McIntosh Airport experiences significant seasonal variation in monthly rainfall.

Rain falls throughout the year at Robert Chris McIntosh Airport. The most rain falls during the 31 days centered around May 1, with an average total accumulation of 5.0 inches.

The least rain falls around August 18, with an average total accumulation of 2.3 inches.

The average rainfall (solid line) accumulated over the course of a sliding 31-day period centered on the day in question, with 25th to 75th and 10th to 90th percentile bands. The thin dotted line is the corresponding average liquid-equivalent snowfall.

Snowfall

The sliding 31-day liquid-equivalent quantity of snowfall at Robert Chris McIntosh Airport does not vary significantly over the course of the year, staying within 0.1 inches of 0.1 inches throughout.

The average liquid-equivalent snowfall (solid line) accumulated over the course of a sliding 31-day period centered on the day in question, with 25th to 75th and 10th to 90th percentile bands. The thin dotted line is the corresponding average rainfall.

Sun

The length of the day at Robert Chris McIntosh Airport varies significantly over the course of the year. In 2018, the shortest day is December 21, with 9 hours, 49 minutes of daylight; the longest day is June 21, with 14 hours, 30 minutes of daylight.

The number of hours during which the Sun is visible (black line). From bottom (most yellow) to top (most gray), the color bands indicate: full daylight, twilight (civil, nautical, and astronomical), and full night.

The earliest sunrise is at 5:54 AM on June 12, and the latest sunrise is 1 hour, 37 minutes later at 7:31 AM on November 3. The earliest sunset is at 4:57 PM on December 5, and the latest sunset is 3 hours, 29 minutes later at 8:26 PM on June 29.

Daylight saving time (DST) is observed at Robert Chris McIntosh Airport during 2018, starting in the spring on March 11, lasting 7.8 months, and ending in the fall on November 4.

The solar day over the course of the year 2018. From bottom to top, the black lines are the previous solar midnight, sunrise, solar noon, sunset, and the next solar midnight. The day, twilights (civil, nautical, and astronomical), and night are indicated by the color bands from yellow to gray. The transitions to and from daylight saving time are indicated by the 'DST' labels.

Humidity

We base the humidity comfort level on the dew point, as it determines whether perspiration will evaporate from the skin, thereby cooling the body. Lower dew points feel drier and higher dew points feel more humid. Unlike temperature, which typically varies significantly between night and day, dew point tends to change more slowly, so while the temperature may drop at night, a muggy day is typically followed by a muggy night.

The muggier period of the year lasts for 4.9 months, from May 7 to October 3, during which time the comfort level is muggy, oppressive, or miserable at least 23% of the time. The muggiest day of the year is July 22, with muggy conditions 89% of the time.

The least muggy day of the year is February 17, when muggy conditions are essentially unheard of.

Wind

This section discusses the wide-area hourly average wind vector (speed and direction) at 10 meters above the ground. The wind experienced at any given location is highly dependent on local topography and other factors, and instantaneous wind speed and direction vary more widely than hourly averages.

The average hourly wind speed at Robert Chris McIntosh Airport experiences significant seasonal variation over the course of the year.

The windier part of the year lasts for 7.0 months, from October 19 to May 20, with average wind speeds of more than 6.6 miles per hour. The windiest day of the year is April 1, with an average hourly wind speed of 8.1 miles per hour.

The calmer time of year lasts for 5.0 months, from May 20 to October 19. The calmest day of the year is July 28, with an average hourly wind speed of 5.0 miles per hour.

The average of mean hourly wind speeds (dark gray line), with 25th to 75th and 10th to 90th percentile bands.

The predominant average hourly wind direction at Robert Chris McIntosh Airport varies throughout the year.

The wind is most often from the south for 5.5 months, from February 20 to August 4 and for 2.7 months, from October 1 to December 24, with a peak percentage of 46% on May 19. The wind is most often from the east for 1.9 months, from August 4 to October 1, with a peak percentage of 39% on September 6. The wind is most often from the north for 1.9 months, from December 24 to February 20, with a peak percentage of 31% on January 1.

Wind Direction

The percentage of hours in which the mean wind direction is from each of the four cardinal wind directions (north, east, south, and west), excluding hours in which the mean wind speed is less than 1 mph. The lightly tinted areas at the boundaries are the percentage of hours spent in the implied intermediate directions (northeast, southeast, southwest, and northwest).

Best Time of Year to Visit

To characterize how pleasant the weather is at Robert Chris McIntosh Airport throughout the year, we compute two travel scores.

The tourism score favors clear, rainless days with perceived temperatures between 65°F and 80°F. Based on this score, the best times of year to visit Robert Chris McIntosh Airport for general outdoor tourist activities are from late April to early June and from late August to mid October, with a peak score in the third week of September.

The beach/pool score favors clear, rainless days with perceived temperatures between 75°F and 90°F. Based on this score, the best time of year to visit Robert Chris McIntosh Airport for hot-weather activities is from early June to mid September, with a peak score in the last week of August.

Methodology

For each hour between 8:00 AM and 9:00 PM of each day in the analysis period (1980 to 2016), independent scores are computed for perceived temperature, cloud cover, and total precipitation. Those scores are combined into a single hourly composite score, which is then aggregated into days, averaged over all the years in the analysis period, and smoothed.

Our precipitation score, which is based on the three-hour precipitation centered on the hour in question, is 10 for no precipitation, falling linearly to 9 for trace precipitation, and to 0 for 0.04 inches of precipitation or more.

Our tourism temperature score is 0 for perceived temperatures below 50°F, rising linearly to 9 for 65°F, to 10 for 75°F, falling linearly to 9 for 80°F, and to 1 for 90°F or hotter.

Our beach/pool temperature score is 0 for perceived temperatures below 65°F, rising linearly to 9 for 75°F, to 10 for 82°F, falling linearly to 9 for 90°F, and to 1 for 100°F or hotter.

Growing Season

Definitions of the growing season vary throughout the world, but for the purposes of this report, we define it as the longest continuous period of non-freezing temperatures (≥ 32°F) in the year (the calendar year in the Northern Hemisphere, or from July 1 until June 30 in the Southern Hemisphere).

The growing season at Robert Chris McIntosh Airport typically lasts for 7.8 months (239 days), from around March 17 to around November 11, rarely starting before February 25 or after April 7, and rarely ending before October 24 or after December 1.

Growing degree days are a measure of yearly heat accumulation used to predict plant and animal development, and defined as the integral of warmth above a base temperature, discarding any excess above a maximum temperature. In this report, we use a base of 50°F and a cap of 86°F.

Based on growing degree days alone, the first spring blooms at Robert Chris McIntosh Airport should appear around February 13, only rarely appearing before January 25 or after March 3.

The average growing degree days accumulated over the course of the year, with 25th to 75th and 10th to 90th percentile bands.

Solar Energy

This section discusses the total daily incident shortwave solar energy reaching the surface of the ground over a wide area, taking full account of seasonal variations in the length of the day, the elevation of the Sun above the horizon, and absorption by clouds and other atmospheric constituents. Shortwave radiation includes visible light and ultraviolet radiation.

The average daily incident shortwave solar energy experiences significant seasonal variation over the course of the year.

The brighter period of the year lasts for 4.5 months, from April 13 to August 31, with an average daily incident shortwave energy per square meter above 5.9 kWh. The brightest day of the year is June 21, with an average of 6.8 kWh.

The darker period of the year lasts for 2.9 months, from November 10 to February 5, with an average daily incident shortwave energy per square meter below 3.3 kWh. The darkest day of the year is December 23, with an average of 2.4 kWh.

The average daily shortwave solar energy reaching the ground per square meter (orange line), with 25th to 75th and 10th to 90th percentile bands.

Topography

For the purposes of this report, the geographical coordinates of Robert Chris McIntosh Airport are 34.846 deg latitude, -92.172 deg longitude, and 249 ft elevation.

The topography within 2 miles of Robert Chris McIntosh Airport contains only modest variations in elevation, with a maximum elevation change of 167 feet and an average elevation above sea level of 254 feet. Within 10 miles also contains only modest variations in elevation (453 feet). Within 50 miles contains only modest variations in elevation (1,729 feet).

The area within 2 miles of Robert Chris McIntosh Airport is covered by artificial surfaces (49%), herbaceous vegetation (19%), trees (14%), and cropland (12%), within 10 miles by cropland (35%) and trees (28%), and within 50 miles by cropland (43%) and trees (40%).

Data Sources

This report illustrates the typical weather at Robert Chris McIntosh Airport, based on a statistical analysis of historical hourly weather reports and model reconstructions from January 1, 1980 to December 31, 2016.

Temperature and Dew Point

Robert Chris McIntosh Airport has a weather station that reported reliably enough during the analysis period that we have included it in our network. When available, historical temperature and dew point measurements are taken directly from this weather station. These records are obtained from NOAA's Integrated Surface Hourly data set, falling back on ICAO METAR records as required.

In the case of missing or erroneous measurements from this station, we fall back on records from nearby stations, adjusted according to typical seasonal and diurnal intra-station differences. For a given day of the year and hour of the day, the fallback station is selected to minimize the prediction error over the years for which there are measurements for both stations.

Other Data

All other weather data, including cloud cover, precipitation, wind speed and direction, and solar flux, come from NASA's MERRA-2 Modern-Era Retrospective Analysis . This reanalysis combines a variety of wide-area measurements in a state-of-the-art global meteorological model to reconstruct the hourly history of weather throughout the world on a 50-kilometer grid.

Disclaimer

The information on this site is provided as is, without any assurances as to its accuracy or suitability for any purpose. Weather data is prone to errors, outages, and other defects. We assume no responsibility for any decisions made on the basis of the content presented on this site.

We draw particular cautious attention to our reliance on the MERRA-2 model-based reconstructions for a number of important data series. While having the tremendous advantages of temporal and spatial completeness, these reconstructions: (1) are based on computer models that may have model-based errors, (2) are coarsely sampled on a 50 km grid and are therefore unable to reconstruct the local variations of many microclimates, and (3) have particular difficulty with the weather in some coastal areas, especially small islands.

We further caution that our travel scores are only as good as the data that underpin them, that weather conditions at any given location and time are unpredictable and variable, and that the definition of the scores reflects a particular set of preferences that may not agree with those of any particular reader.